The Rising Global Middle Class

Aditya Kumar has a good job as a youth development officer in Agra, a four-hour bus ride from his village. With his mother's pension, Mr. Kumar’s family has purchased three taxis. He wants to scale up this side business and quit his job. But such decisions in India aren’t left to one person. “I do not have the ability to choose the business I want to because [my mother] won’t approve,” says Kumar, who is 38.